UN food chief: Wheat flour to arrive in Lebanon in two weeks

The head of the UN's food agency on Tuesday said 17.5 thousand metric tons of wheat flour has been sent to Lebanon.

Executive Director of the World Food Programme David Beasley spoke in Beirut, one week after the catastrophic explosion that killed at least 171 people, injured thousands and plunged the country into a deeper political crisis.

"We can have that here in two weeks so that people will have bread on the table", he said.

Beasley, who is in Beirut assessing damage and recovery prospects, says his team is looking at all options to get food into the country.

"We're looking at the port of Tripoli. We're looking at all other options, trucking food in, as well as shipping food in, flying food in, whatever it takes", he said.

It still wasn't clear what caused the fire in a port warehouse that triggered the explosion of the chemicals, which created a shock wave so powerful it was felt as far away as the island of Cyprus more than 200 kilometres (180 miles) across the Mediterranean.